More floor

It's unbelievable, but we came thiiis close to not having all the flooring in. Our contractor's flooring source underestimated the amount of material needed, and though it's nothing unusual or exotic (domestic red oak), this prefinished material has to be ordered weeks in advance. Ironic if we'd get hung up on one of the few decisions we'd made before demolition even started, but, back then in the good old days, freight companies weren't going out of business left and right.

But, our most wonderful foreman leaned hard and somehow got it here today, in the nick of time. Construction cleaning starts tomorrow (3/12), and after that, the house is no longer a jobsite.

Speaking of floors, one floor we hadn't planned to replace was the original porch floor. But it was already damaged and then had to be cut into for some electrical reason, so the only choice was to replace it. Which gave us the choice not to paint it, as the old porch had been. Instead, we just clearcoated the fir. Other than losing some interesting old screen door scratch marks, I'm beside myself about this change. It is beautiful, and really makes the new doors stand out too.

Our old porch, right before we moved out (and after a piece of exploratory trim was removed):


The new porch:


Oh yeah, and remember those living room floors that were redone? They were dry on a Saturday afternoon, so it was only natural I'd expect them to be in the same state Sunday morning. Who coats floors on a Sunday? Worse yet, what idiot homeowner steps on them, still wet, in socks, on a Sunday? That would be me!

Yupper, I left a nice perfect size 6-1/2 smoodge on our brand-new living room floor finish. As soon as I felt the stick, my heart sank and I backed out immediately. Fortunately, it can easily be buffed out. I don't have an answer to the question: why did I take off my shoes if I thought the floor was dry?

The stairwell carpet is in too -- all flooring done!

We've been living in a carpeted rental house for 9-1/2 months, and this has permanently cured Dave of his previous ambivalence about carpet v. wood floors. I grew up in a rowhouse in Brooklyn with no carpet, and have never liked it. Now, with all the spots, the stuff sticking to them and in them, the difficultly moving things around....good riddance. Rugs OK, carpet on stairs OK (ugly but quiet), wood floors, the way to go.